


Ezekiel Jones and the Artful Princess

by lea_hazel



Category: The Librarians (TV 2014)
Genre: Collection: Purimgifts Day 3, Community: purimgifts, Developing Relationship, Ezekiel Jones Is Awesome, Gen, Multi, Polyamory, Story within a Story
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-18
Updated: 2016-03-18
Packaged: 2018-05-27 11:44:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 860
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6283225
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lea_hazel/pseuds/lea_hazel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Colonel Baird tries to solve her team's teamwork problem. The potential solution seems almost as complicated as the problem. (Maybe a little bit of case fic.)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ezekiel Jones and the Artful Princess

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Night-Mare (Aoife)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Aoife/gifts).



By the time Eve and Cassandra had found Jones, it was to discover him embroiled in a four-way verbal fray with Stone and two strangers. Actually, it looked like the two strangers were arguing, Jones was trying to intervene, and Stone was trying to stop him from intervening. Of the two, Eve tended to assume that Jake was in the right, or at least more likely to be level-headed and sensible. But Jones looked more invested than he usually got in, well, *anything*, and so she decided to approach with caution.

Beside her, Cassandra was making pitchy concerned noises.

"And I'm telling you you need to _stay out of this_!" said Jake. "You don't even know who this woman is."

"Great!" said Eve, more to herself than anything. "Better rip the band-aid off. Excuse me! Sir, miss, us there a problem here?"

The woman -- young, pretty, expensively dressed -- turned to her and exclaimed, "Yes! I'm being persecuted by an evil vizier!"

The man, who was older but also well-dressed, snorted. "Please, Nasrin, there's no need to be so melodramatic."

The library had spit them out into the manicured green of a no-name college. The woman, Nasrin, was carrying a stack of books and what looked like a sketch pad, which she was scrabbling to keep from slipping from her arms. She tossed her hair and turned pointedly away from the older man.

"If you don't _mind_ ," she said, "I _was_  having a conversation with-- with this nice young man here."

Eve couldn't help but snort at that.

Jake was working himself up into a righteous anger. "Do you know who this is? Do you even--" he stooped to pick up the sketchbook that Nasrin had dropped, flipping it shut to show Jones the cover. "Do you even know what this is?" he demanded, gesturing at the illustrated cover.

Jones shrugged. "Yeah, so? She's an art student and her book has a logo on the cover."

Nasrin's face turned suddenly cloudy and she made a grab at Jake. "Give that back!" she said. "That's mine!"

"She's a _princess_ , Jones!" said Stone, before she could stop him.

Cassandra gasped. Nasrin had managed to pry the book out of Stone's hands, but the cat was out of the bag. She shot him a sour look before turning to Jones. The older man, meanwhile, was chortling, apparently satisfied with her crumbling deception. Nasrin affected an injured look to plead her innocence with Jones and Stone turned his back on the both of them, disgustedly.

"Is she really a princess?" asked Cassandra. "I've never seen a princess before. Well, I mean, not in person I didn't."

"That ' _logo_ ' on her artbook?" said Jake. "Yeah, that's the crest of the Saudi royal family."

***

Eve watched Ezekiel and the princess talk, tilting her head. "I would ask what kind of trouble Jones has gotten himself into, but I actually had something else in mind when I came here. We need to talk."

"Yeah, you said," he said. "We talked. It's done. Okay?"

"Right!" said Cassandra chirpily. "We talked it out and figured it out, and there's no problem. No problem."

"No problem?" asked Eve, expertly raising a single eyebrow.

Jones walked up behind them and clapped an arm around either's shoulders. "Right," he said. "What are we talking about?"

Stone pinched the bridge of his nose.

"How we talked it out," said Cassandra helpfully. "You know, worked out our issues, after. You know. _Peru_."

"Oh, yeah, sure." Jones turned to her, smirking. "These two were having problems working things out after their breakup, but I fixed it. You're welcome."

"You fixed it," said Eve, suddenly too tired to form a question.

"Yup."

Cassandra smiled a wobbly smile and Stone had the grace and decency to looked a little abashed.

"See," said Ezekiel, turning to Jake, "you couldn't work things out because you're too different. You needed a buffer, a mediator, to make things work."

"And that's you," said Eve.

"Well, yeah," he replied. "I'm Ezekiel Jones. I'm awesome. I solve relationship drama just by being around to talk it out with people."

"So now you--" she sketched a circle in the air that included all three of them-- "are, what? A couple?"

"Stable triad," piped up Cassandra. "There's a word for it. I looked it up."

She heard Jenkins' voice emanate suddenly from somewhere to her left.

"As fascinating as I'm sure all your personal lives are," he said, "I'm afraid the real object of your attentions should be that young lady over there, and that book in her hands. Mr. Jones, in the future I suggest you avoid putting yourself in situations involving a princess and a thief."

"See, I told you! I told you!" said Jake, poking his index finger at Ezekiel's chest.

"The situation is rather more complicated than that, of course," said Jenkins to her in an undertone. "I'd better catch up with our young artist before she and her book of illustrations make their escape. I trust you have things well under hand here, Colonel?"

"Sure I do," said Eve, and ignored the way her pitch began to rise.

[](http://imgur.com/phtpFUx)

Click to embiggen.


End file.
